Knight Riders roll to opening IPL victory

It was not the start to the Indian Premier League that Mumbai Indians coach Ricky Ponting or opener Aaron Finch were looking for after their side slumped to defeat.

Kolkata Knight Riders, the defending champions, inspired by a blistering spell of fearsome pace bowling from South African Morne Morkel, had Mumbai on the back foot early.

Some late hitting saw Mumbai post 169 from their 20 overs, a total KKR chased down in 18.3 overs with seven wickets in hand.

Put in to bat, Finch (5) fell in the second over of the match, popping up a chatch after being beaten for pace.

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Finch skies a catch to be caught in the second over // BCCI

Morkel angled into the batsmen at pace. But there were some that left the batsmen as well, to keep them guessing.

Bowling his four overs on the trot, one was a testing maiden, an unplayable six balls, with the bowler getting bounce off good length.

A second scalp came from a delivery that kicked up and held its line, causing Ambati Rayudu to fend  off to the slips.

Only 18 came from his four to go with those two wickets, a spell that won him the man-of-the-match award.

It took a matured knock from Rohit Sharma to bring Mumbai Indians back into the game.

The Rohit who came out to bat against the Knight Riders on the opening night of this year’s IPL was not a lot different from the one on display in their 2015 World Cup quarter-final against Bangladesh.

Rohit seemed out to prove that not only has he matured as a batsman but also that this is a format in which that very quality is as vital as the ability to clear boundaries.

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Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting ahead of the match // BCCI

Mumbai were reeling at 3-37 with Tohit and Black Caps all rounder Corey Anderson struggling to get going. 

The pair saw off the rest of Morkel's spell, consolidated and accelerated in the final six overs.

Mumbai were 3-80 after 14 before Rohit got going. Once he did, and Anderson found his rhythm, 88 runs came from the last six. Rohit sped to 98 from 65 and it was only the lack of strike in the last over that prevented him from getting to three figures.

Anderson took nine balls to get off the mark, and was on 23 from 27 when he was put down by Andre Russell at deep mid-wicket. He made Kolkata pay by scoring a further 32 from just 14 balls including a six off the last ball of the innings to get to his half-century.

Sunil Narine, in his first game since remodelling his action, went for 28 from his four overs.

Playing in front of a capacity crowd at Eden Gardens, Kolkata skipper Gautam Gambhir rode on an early life that wicket-keeper Aditya Tare provided him to hit a 43-ball 57 at the top of the innings.

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Gambhir had some hardware issues // BCCI

His partner in crime was Manish Pandey, who was also dropped. Gambhir and Pandey added 85 for the second wicket, but more vitally it was a stand that did not allow the opposition to come back into the game after the early wicket of Robin Uthappa.

What made the partnership special was the way they handled a four-over spell of spin bowling immediately after the Powerplay had ended.

Having scored 38 from the first six overs, Pragyan Ojha and Harbhajan Singh were taken for 47 from the next four.

It turned the tide definitively in Kolkata's favour.

Suryakumar Yadav’s batting saw to that. His aggression provided the icing on the cake for Kolkata, as he consistently upset bowlers’ lengths by playing an unorthodox brand of cricket.

His unbeaten 46 came off just 20 deliveries and consisted of five sixes and a four. It was a knock that took the game beyond Mumbai as they sought to claw their way back following the Gambhir-Pandey stand.

Yadav, who was earlier named the vice-captain of the Knight Riders side, was fearless in his approach, a quality that could be seen from the shot he played immediately after Gambhir’s wicket. He walked over to the off-stump and scooped it over fine-leg for a maximum off the very next delivery, not allowing Mumbai to return into the game.

He never looked back after that, going on to thump Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga into the stands regularly to deliver the defending champions their first win.

Australia's World Cup winning pace pair Pat Cummins (Kolkata) and Josh Hazlewood (Mumbai) did not feature in the game.

For Ponting, the chance to get his first win as coach will come against George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Johnson and the Kings XI Punjab on Sunday night.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (c), Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Andre Russell, Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine, Umesh Yadav, Morne Morkel

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Aaron Finch, Ambati Rayudu, Aditya Tare, Corey Anderson, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga, Vinay Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Pragyan Ojha